Our researchers will take an interdisciplinary approach to map and identify the features and geography of the Enlightenment as both an intellectual movement and a cultural process, within the context of the Croatian lands during the “long” 18th century.

Based on selected case studies, we will analyse existing interpretations and definitions of the Enlightenment in both Croatian and broader European contexts, highlight key Enlightenment actors and their transnational networks, and select representative primary texts to serve as a foundation for future research. The project’s research areas will include topics such as the Catholic Enlightenment, circulation of Enlightenment knowledge, and Enlightenment and revolution.

Critically edited and annotated texts in Croatian, German, French, Latin, and Italian will be made accessible to both researchers and the general public through a digital repository hosted on the project’s website. This repository will include metadata and offer search functionality as well as automated translation into major world languages. It will be the first digital reader of its kind, contributing to the popularisation of Croatian intellectual and cultural history of the 18th century—an area still in its early stages of development. Numerous printed Enlightenment readers exist in other languages, especially English, and are commonly used to engage students with intellectual history and the history of ideas.

As part of the project, the first doctoral thesis dedicated to Enlightenment themes of libraries and censorship is planned. This will significantly advance the current state of research into the cultural dimensions of the 18th century in the Croatian lands. Doctoral research on this period is notably scarce, largely due to the complexity of working with historical sources in various languages—something that often discourages young researchers.

The project adopts a research approach that understands the Enlightenment as a unique phenomenon characterised by a range of debates, questions, and cultural practices which, however differently formulated or expressed, were nonetheless seen as shared by contemporaries across Europe. What is considered “enlightened” on a national level must be viewed within a broader European context. This requires an examination of the interconnectedness of Enlightenment intellectual activity—that is, the international circulation of ideas, books, and thinkers—as well as various forms of knowledge more broadly.

Click here to download the project brochure.